Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say<br>02/13/2006 @ 10:25 am<br>Filed by Larisa Alexandrovna<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Outed_CIA_officer_was_working_on_0213.html">rawstory.com/news/2005/Ou..._0213.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>IranThe unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson by White House officials in 2003 caused significant damage to U.S. national security and its ability to counter nuclear proliferation abroad, RAW STORY has learned.<br>Advertisement<br><br>According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.<br><br>Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.<br><br>While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran.<br><br>Plame declined to comment through her husband, Joseph Wilson.<br><br>Valerie Plame first became a household name when her identity was disclosed by conservative columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. The column came only a week after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had written an op-ed for the New York Times asserting that White House officials twisted pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Her outing was seen as political retaliation for Wilson's criticism of the Administration's claim that Iraq sought uranium from Niger for a nuclear weapons program.<br><br>Her case has drawn international attention and resulted in the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements. Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is leading the probe, is still pursuing Deputy Chief of Staff and Special Advisor to President Bush, Karl Rove. His investigation remains open.<br><br>The damages<br><br>Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation.<br><br>Plame's team, they added, would have come in contact with A.Q. Khan's network in the course of her work on Iran.<br><br>While Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss has not submitted a formal damage assessment to Congressional oversight committees, the CIA's Directorate of Operations did conduct a serious and aggressive investigation, sources say.<br><br>Intelligence sources familiar with the damage assessment say that what is called a "counter intelligence assessment to agency operations" was conducted on the orders of the CIA's then-Deputy Director of the Directorate of Operations, James Pavitt.<br><br>Former CIA counterintelligence officer Larry Johnson believes that such an assessment would have had to be done for the CIA to have referred the case to the Justice Department.<br><br>"An exposure like that required an immediate operational and counter intelligence damage assessment," Johnson said. "That was done. The results were written up but not in a form for submission to anyone outside of CIA."<br><br>One former counterintelligence official described the CIA's reasons for not seeking Congressional assistance on the matter as follows: "[The CIA Leadership] made a conscious decision not to do a formal inquiry because they knew it might become public," the source said. "They referred it [to the Justice Department] instead because they believed a criminal investigation was needed."<br><br>The source described the findings of the assessment as showing "significant damage to operational equities."<br><br>Another counterintelligence official, also wishing to remain anonymous due to the nature of the subject matter, described "operational equities" as including both people and agency operations that involve the "cover mechanism," "front companies," and other CIA officers and assets.<br><br>Three intelligence officers confirmed that other CIA non-official cover officers were compromised, but did not indicate the number of people operating under non-official cover that were affected or the way in which these individuals were impaired. None of the sources would say whether there were American or foreign casualties as a result of the leak.<br><br>Several intelligence officials described the damage in terms of how long it would take for the agency to recover. According to their own assessment, the CIA would be impaired for up to "ten years" in its capacity to adequately monitor nuclear proliferation on the level of efficiency and accuracy it had prior to the White House leak of Plame Wilson's identity.<br><br>A.Q. Khan<br><br>While Plame's work did not specifically focus on the A.Q. Khan ring, named after Pakistani scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the network and its impact on nuclear proliferation and the region should not be minimized, primarily because the Khan network was the major supplier of WMD technology for Iran.<br><br>Dr. Khan instituted the proliferation market during the 1980s and supplied many countries in the Middle East and elsewhere with uranium enrichment technology, including Libya, Iran and North Korea. Enriched uranium is used to make weaponized nuclear devices.<br><br>The United States forced the Pakistan government to dismiss Khan for his proliferation activities in March of 2001, but he remains largely free and acts as an adviser to the Pakistani government.<br><br>According to intelligence expert John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, U.S. officials were not aware of the extent of the proliferation until around the time of Khan's dismissal.<br><br>"It slowly dawned on them that the collaboration between Pakistan, North Korea and Iran was an ongoing and serious problem," Pike said. "It was starting to sink in on them that it was one program doing business in three locations and that anything one of these countries had they all had."<br><br>After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Pakistan became the United States' chief regional ally in the war on terror.<br><br>The revelation that Iran was the focal point of Plame's work raises new questions as to possible other motivating factors in the White House's decision to reveal the identity of a CIA officer working on tracking a WMD supply network to Iran, particularly when the very topic of Iran's possible WMD capability is of such concern to the Administration. <p></p><i></i>

Nomo and SLD:<br><br>Thanks for posting this BIG item, cutting to the quick of what Plame was REALLY involved in, and offering insights to the real reasons behind the outing of Plame. As I see it and the Raw Story article hints at but which the DU American Judas post really makes explicit -- Plame got 'too close' to uncovering American links to the nuclear and weapons 'Walmart' industry. <br><br>I'd read a Raw Story excerpt but didn't link to the full story -- I guess I assumed I'd gotton the gist of it, and so missed RS's revelation from insider sources that Intel. estimates place the CIA back to a ten-year disadvantage, with at least three deep-covers blown and several front companies and perhaps dozens of contacts and sources compromises -- a HUGE intel sabotage.<br><br>I didn't suspect Cheney's intimate financial links to AQ Khan and his network, but rather that Plame's investigation was getting too close to covert US links to the terrorist and arms-drugs smuggling rackets -- which appears to be a National Security State duplicious necessity with the goal of providing the backdrop for America's perpetual war and Middle East occupation agenda -- realpolitic force-projection that deflects the site of US's longstanding ideological and economic conflict with Europe while 'protecting' America's pre-eminent globalist interests and status. As is evident, US policy revolves around maintaining the dollar as an oil-sales reserve currency, even or especially against Europe's keen interests being better served if the Euro would at least share the benefits enjoyed by the dollar's featured position/role.<br><br>It's mind-boggling, there's just SO much that has been kept hidden and unacknowledged, which the American Judas post shines the light of day on, not least being that the US helped create the monster which is Pakistan's ISI and which is the nexus for so much of what the US officially claims it is opposed to and fighting against. <br><br>Like a lot of folks, my own awareness of something incredibly devious and foul in the CIA-ISI connection was triggered by discovering ISI's financial link to the alleged 911 terrorists -- and reified by the red flag of US officialdom burying the fact that the Pentagon/Defense Dept. was feteing the ISI chief Ahmed (who authorized the $100,000 wire transfer to Mohammed Atta, who the FBI claimed was the 911 lead terrorist) on 911, and the days before and after. This official non-event is almost as auspicious as the US excising all public acknowledgement and reference to the fact that under Reagan/Bush 41 the US subsidized and facilitated Saddam's acquisition of (technically-prohibited but allowed) weapons-materials, equipment and technology that it has since used as justification for attacks, invasion and economic sanctions.<br><br>A lot of material to absorb in the American Judas post, but I'm determined to read it thoroughly (beyond my first skimthru).<br>Starman<br><br>Additional snippets:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.apfn.net/MESSAGEBOARD/8-10-03/discussion.cgi.54.html">www.apfn.net/MESSAGEBOARD...gi.54.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>Scandals / Iraqgate<br><br>Friedman, Alan. Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. 455 pages.<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.namebase.org/books57.html">www.namebase.org/books57.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br><br>This is the story that Bill Clinton promised to investigate if he got elected, but now (January 1994) it appears that his handlers have other plans. It's about how the White House, with assistance from allies in London and Rome, violated the law in order to support Saddam Hussein. Then, following the invasion of Kuwait, George Bush compared him to Hitler, set up the American response, and he and Margaret Thatcher began covering up their past dealings. The story involves the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), the Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation, Iraq's nuclear procurement program, and the CIA and Carlos Cardoen (a Chilean arms dealer). Given this ten-year history, it was not unreasonable for Saddam Hussein to assume that U.S. ambassador April Glaspie was giving him the green light to invade Kuwait. And maybe she was; perhaps Bush thought he needed a quick-fix war to try out the Pentagon's new toys and crank up his popularity.<br><br>Alan Friedman is an American citizen who began covering Iraqgate while serving as the Milan correspondent for the Financial Times of London. His book includes 74 pages of reproduced bank and government documents, as well as extensive end notes.<br><br>Mantius, Peter. Shell Game: A Story of Banking, Spies, Lies, Politics, and the Arming of Saddam Hussein. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1995. 288 pages.<br>When the feds arrested Christopher Drogoul in 1991, the manager of the Atlanta branch of the Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), they charged him with 347 felony counts. The story was that Drogoul had hoodwinked his Italian bosses and funneled billions to Saddam Hussein. The prosecutor, Gale McKenzie, was given her lines by U.S. intelligence insiders, and tried to place all of the blame on Drogoul. The bosses at BNL were only too happy to go along, and hired lawyers with close connections to the prosecution. But judge Marvin Shoob saw that the government was pulling a fast one. It was attempting to blame Drogoul for what amounted to an off-the-books effort by Fortune 500 corporations and U.S. policymakers to recruit Iraq as an ally, by giving them credits that were used to purchase arms.<br><br>Congressman Henry Gonzalez, who is a tenacious muckraker when his targets are Republicans, tried to make hay out of Iraqgate in 1992. But Shoob was sufficiently outspoken that he had to give the Drogoul case to another judge, whereupon Drogoul cut a deal and ended up serving 33 months. There was a bit of BNL fallout back in Italy, and an Iraqgate scandal in Britain, while in the U.S. the story was already dead. The fact that our media had been so unabashedly enthusiastic over the high-tech death and destruction of the Gulf War may have had something to do with it.<br><br>*******<br>Report: Valerie Plame Was in Covert Op on Iran When Outed<br>Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story breaks important news today: Intelligence officials say that at the time of her outing as a CIA employee/operative, she was "part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran."<br><br>Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.<br><br>...Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation.<br><br>The import:<br><br>The revelation that Iran was the focal point of Plame's work raises new questions as to possible other motivating factors in the White House's decision to reveal the identity of a CIA officer working on tracking a WMD supply network to Iran, particularly when the very topic of Iran's possible WMD capability is of such concern to the Administration.<br><br>Update: More from Steve Clemons at Washington Note who writes Larissa's article is "rather huge news" and adds more details:<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001246.php">www.thewashingtonnote.com...001246.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>An important and provocative report has just been published that suggests that Iran was the target of much of Valerie Plame's covert investigative work and that outing her identity had far worse consequences than has thus far been acknowledged.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

It sounds like a "limited hangout" when the investigation only looks at ONE aspect: that of the outing by the press. This is interesting and important, what she was actively investigationg when the outing occurred. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>

plame bumps into a whopper crime<br><br>so the PTB do a crime by revealing her.<br>outing a CIA agent.<br><br>Yet the big ole crime which plame may know or is close to<br><br>is still covered up.<br><br>The question is what is the BIG crime?<br><br>Poppy o and his NUKE sales?<br><br>Dickie duckie cheny and his NUKE sales?<br><br>Is Plame in on the crimes?//set up as the scapegoat?<br><br>Way more to this one!<br><br> <p></p><i></i>